For the last century, the general trend in agriculture has been the consolidation of farmland into larger and larger farming operations. In 1900 the average farm size in the U.S. was about 140 acres, which today the average size is over 400. Because of the way in which farmlands were originally surveyed and parceled, and the way in which land is acquired, large farms generally do not consist of contiguous plots of land. As a result, in order to manage a farm, farm equipment frequently must be moved from one site to another using public roadways.
For some self-propelled equipment this presents little problem. However, other types of farm equipment, for example combines, cannot simply be driven down the road as the header portion is generally too wide to be accommodate by public roadways. Headers can be as much as 40 feet in width (about 12 m). The standard lane width in North America is about 12 feet (3.7 m). Thus, transporting a harvesting header while installed on the combine can be virtually impossible, as it would completely tie up traffic in both directions on most single lane roads, the routes typically available from field to field.
As a result, the header on a combine generally has to be removed from the combine, loaded onto a trailer lengthwise so that it can be safely transported to the next field where combining operations are to take place. A variety of prior art solutions have generally taken the obvious approach of removing the header and placing lengthwise on a trailer, the header and trailer being narrow enough to fit safely within a single lane of a roadway.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,904 (Kuhns) discloses a trailer with supporting brackets onto which a harvesting header can be loaded and secured. The header is placed such that it is aligned longitudinally with the trailer, thereby allowing the header to be safely transported on public roadways. The fact that the header is placed onto the trailer means that this system cannot conveniently be manipulated by a single operator. Further, the use of brackets as support members means that the system is not readily adaptable to a variety of harvesting header configurations.
Later approaches to the problem include those such as are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,989 (Wood). That invention includes adjustable header support units that are configured to be more readily adapted to various header units. The solution, however, simply adds a plurality of mounting points for the supporting brackets, such that the user can select a particular bracket mount point to more or less align with the desired engagement point on the header. Given its size, the system is still not particularly amenable to use by a single operator, and stills retains defined attachment points, which may or may not perfectly align with sites on the header to which one might wish to secure the header to the trailer.
Others have provided trailers that allow the header to be rotated around the longitudinal axis in order to save space and make it easier to effect repairs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,428,047 (Kaderabek) discloses a trailer that allows the header to be placed on the trailer and then pivotally rotated in order to either provide access to the underside of the header, or to save space for storage of the header in the off-season. A variation of this same theme is disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0189382 (Nubel et al.). Still others have disclosed a trailer with a steerable wheel system on which headers can be transported, as is disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2010/0052289 (Frey et al.).
These prior art devices all suffer from similar limitations. For example, by using a fixed size trailer, a system may not be easily adapted for headers of difference sizes. More importantly, each of these prior art system are effectively a large trailer that is difficult for a single operator to manipulate. Generally, using prior art equipment requires two or three people in order to situate the trailer and move the header from the combine to the trailer.
Thus what is needed is a harvesting header transport system and accompanying method of use that simplifies the movement of a harvesting header from one site to another, and is compatible with typically public roadways that are used to transport farm equipment from site to site. In addition, what is further needed is a system and method that can be used by a single worker.